Scientists have described four new species of catfish from the family Akysidae.

Dr Walter Rainboth, an expert on southeast Asian fishes, and Dr Heok Hee Ng, an extremely prolific systematist who has published numerous descriptions of new catfishes, found the four new catfishes in mainland southeast Asia.

They have just described the four catfishes Akysis filifer, A. nitidus, A. clinatus and A. fuliginatus in The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.

Three of the new species, A. filifer, fuliginatus and nitidus, were found in the Mekong River drainage, while Akysis clinatus was found in southwest Cambodia.

Ng and Rainboth believe that clinatus and fuliginatus are members of the variegatus species group, while filifer and nitidus are members of the pseudobagarius species group.

For more details see the paper: Ng, HH and WJ Rainboth (2005) - Four new species of Akysis (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Akysidae) from mainland Southeast Asia, with comments on A. similis. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 13: 33-42.